My U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,953 discloses an ironing mangle having a generally cylindrical and tubular roller received in a generally cylindrical tube that surrounds it by more than 270.degree.. A plurality of cushions or bags is secured to the outer surface of the roller with these bags angularly offset and angularly overlapping each other. In addition these bags can be pneumatically pressurized to force items being ironed against the inner surface of the sleeve. A cover sheet extending circumferentially completely around the roller is secured to the roller at its leading edge underneath one of the bags and is gas pervious. Similarly the bags are provided with tubular throughgoing fittings that allow gas passage through the bags without depressurization of them, while the surfaces of these bags are formed with bumps and the roller has throughgoing holes that allow the interior of the roller to be depressurized to draw off steam generated during ironing.
Such an arrangement has proven extremely satisfactory for ironing, in particular in a commercial plant where large sheets and the like must be handled in a mass-production manner. The provision of a plurality of separately pressurized cushions ensures that the outer surface of the ironing roller remains relatively smooth for best ironing.
This system has, however, some disadvantages. In order to service, that is repair or clean, the ironing roller it is necessary to disassemble the tube or sleeve surrounding it, as it is normally impossible to pull the central roller axially out of this sleeve or tube. This operation therefore requires substantial disassembly of the entire apparatus, so that the downtime will be considerable. Another disadvantage is that the device consumes considerable heat, mainly lost at the open gap between the intake and output location. What is more the cushions frequently swell up considerably at this open gap, forming wrinkles in the cover or simply themselves expanding to such a point that the elastic limit of the material forming these cushions is exceeded. In order to prevent this it is, therefore, necessary to work with relatively low pressure in these cushions, with correspondingly reduced ironing efficiency.